KNOM Radio Missionhttp://www.knom.org/wp
96.1 FM | 780 AM | Yours for Western AlaskaSun, 02 Aug 2015 17:30:09 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.3Omitted from City Budget, Nonprofits Ask Council for Fundinghttp://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2015/06/23/omitted-from-city-budget-nonprofits-ask-council-for-funding/
http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2015/06/23/omitted-from-city-budget-nonprofits-ask-council-for-funding/#commentsWed, 24 Jun 2015 00:19:05 +0000http://www.knom.org/wp/?p=16944Some of the nonprofit and charity groups are asking for a portion of NSEDC's annual community benefit share; others want a permanent place in the city's ledger.]]>http://www.knom.org/wp-audio/2015/06/2015-06-23-NCC-nonprofits.mp3

The City of Nome has passed a budget for the next 12 months, and even dropped property taxes, but at Monday’s city council meeting residents came out to ask the city to find more room in the budget to support community nonprofits.

Earlier this month the Nome City Council passed an $11.3 million budget for operations, and saw fit to also drop the property tax rate from 12 to 11 mills. But what wasn’t in that budget was any mention of funding for various nonprofits and other charities in Nome, some of which have relied on thousands of dollars of funding from the city in the past. Even the annual Community Benefit Share, given each year by Norton Sound Economic Development Corporation for public projects, remained earmark-free in the city’s budget.

That saw many community members come to speak at the meeting to ask not just for a piece of the benefit share pie—but also for some kind of dedicated city funding.

Danielle Slingsby, executive director of the Nome Community Center, said nine out of every ten dollars her group spends comes from state grants. Now, with state budget deficits in the billions, Slingsby pushed for a permanent place on the city’s ledger.

“We’re running programs even when we get funding pulled, and we try to make sure it works just to fill in the gaps in the community,” she said, addressing the council.

“We’ve got the Boys and Girls Club [and] funding was pulled, we still made it work. We pulled some strings, we’re keeping it together to still run with one staff, 50 kids … it’s still running, but its something we could use constant and continued support for.”

Several members of NEST—the community’s emergency shelter, made a similar appeal to the council. Lance Johnson spoke to the role the shelter plays in preserving lives, reducing homelessness, and keeping police from responding to calls better served by the shelter’s services.

“We can’t afford to see NEST go away in this community, or we’re going to see some really bad numbers,” Johnson said. “I hate to put things in numbers but that’s what it is, it’s numbers from [a] financial standpoint, it’s numbers from casualties, it’s numbers in substance use increasing greatly because of … homelessness.”

Johnson added that “joblessness and homelessness are things that are going to contribute” to those issues the most, concluding that the community “can do something about one of those two things.”

Council member Stan Andersen invited the nonprofits to find a supportive council member and have them introduce an amendment to the budget, or otherwise wait for the community benefit share to be divvied up early next year.

Moving on to other business, the council approved a few items—including a rate hike for ambulance services, as well as an increase in charges per mile for EMS calls. They also renewed city planner Eileen Bechtol’s contract.

Handeland said state loans continue coming in to repay the city for its multi-million dollar line of credit, extended last November. More than $1.2 million remains outstanding. As the utility continues getting its financial house in order, council member Stan Andersen harangued the utility—and Handeland—for failing to cut off customers who don’t pay their electricity bills.

“There’s a whole listing of people that are still on the grid, and they owe thousands of dollars, and they’re still drawing juice!” Andersen said. “Why don’t you cut them all off? But there’s nothing in the tariff that’ll let you do that. But these same characters also owe back property tax. And it keeps, every year it goes on and on and on, and I don’t see—I don’t see any progress.”

Handeland said progress on utility finances is being made, including plans to make permanent a utility rate increase that is set to expire this month. He says the new rate is still to be decided, but it will be similar to what’s now in place. (As of January, Nome utility rates increased to roughly $0.19/kWh to $0.20/kWh for most households.)

“I don’t think there’s any question in anybody’s mind that the [rate structure] that was put into effect in the beginning of the year was long overdue,” Handeland said. “And more than likely there will be some continuation of the existing rate … we will see a permanent rate structure and that’ll be adopted in July.”

As the utility contemplates rates, Handeland said cheaper fuel being barged in this summer could help soften the blow. Last year the 2.3 million gallons of fuel for Nome’s generators cost $3.30 a gallon, in all costing about $8 million. Final prices aren’t set yet—that’ll happen using a formula for the market price in July—but costs are now coming in at about $2.70 a gallon, meaning the same amount of fuel will now cost about $6 million.

It sounds like a savings of $2 million—but Handeland said the utility won’t know the final cost they’ll be charged until next month.

]]>http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2015/06/23/omitted-from-city-budget-nonprofits-ask-council-for-funding/feed/0Hundreds of Young Business Owners Prepare for ‘Lemonade Day’ Across the Bering Strait Regionhttp://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2015/06/12/hundreds-of-young-business-owners-prepare-for-lemonade-day-across-the-bering-strait-region/
http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2015/06/12/hundreds-of-young-business-owners-prepare-for-lemonade-day-across-the-bering-strait-region/#commentsFri, 12 Jun 2015 15:41:25 +0000http://www.knom.org/wp/?p=16820Now in its fourth year in the region, Lemonade Day involved nearly 300 children around the Bering Strait last year, bringing in more than $6,500 in earnings and another $2,500 in donations.]]>

Young and eager entrepreneurs will be taking to the streets in communities across the Bering Strait region Saturday for Lemonade Day, a nationwide event that’s kicking off across Alaska to get kids involved with running a small business.

“It teaches kids about business, how to own and operate a business through having a lemonade stand,” said Alice Bioff, Kawerak’s city coordinator and organizer of the Lemonade Day events across the region.

The event is about more than evoking the classic summer scene of kids selling lemonade: they’ll be selling snacks and other items as they learn what it takes to break even.

“They can sell arts, crafts, baked goods,” Bioff says. “What’s great about Lemonade Day is, it’s totally up to the participants what they want to sell [and] where they want to set up shop.”

Now in its fifth year in Alaska and fourth in the region, nearly 300 kids participated in Lemonade Day around the Bering Strait last year. Just over 60 percent of the participating lemonade stands opened outside of Nome. Together the small businesses brought in more than $6,500 in earnings and another $2,500 in donations for local families, groups like the Nome Community Center and the XYZ Senior Center, and churches in Koyuk and Golovin.

But beyond bringing in money for good causes, Bioff says Lemonade Day gives kids a chance to balance the books of a real business, if only for the day.

“It’s not only fun, but they learn something from it … they learn good life skills from setting goals, to customer service, budgeting, how to work with money,” she said. “It’s just neat to see the kids get excited about the program.”

Bioff said it’s not just the participating children but also the volunteer coordinators and caring adults, donating time and materials, that have helped make the event a success.

To help thirsty Nome residents get around to all the community’s lemonade stands in Nome, Kawerak is offering free bus tours, departing from the Visitor’s Center on Front Street Saturday afternoon between 1 and 5 p.m.

Lemonade Day stands will also be open for business in Golovin, Teller, Gambell, Elim, Savoonga, White Mountain, Brevig Mission, Koyuk, Shaktoolik, Unalakleet, Wales, Diomede, Shishmaref, Stebbins and St. Michael.

Editor’s note: A version of this story aired and appeared online incorrectly stating the number of years Lemonade Day has taken place in Alaska. The above story includes the corrected information.

A Nome man has been arrested and faces multiple felony charges after police allege he hit an officer with his car while fleeing from a traffic stop, and was only arrested after ditching the vehicle and fleeing on foot.

The incident began when Nome Police stopped a car near 3rd Avenue and Steadman around 2:30 a.m. Thursday. In an affidavit filed with the Nome court, officers said they stopped the car for “failing to signal during a right turn” and for “a lack of brake lights.”

The driver was 34-year-old Scott Aningayou, but when officers asked him to get out of the car, police allege he slammed the car in reverse, accelerating “aggressively” and hitting one police officer in the hip with the vehicle before speeding away. Police gave chase, following Aningayou as they say he sped through two stop signs and turned off the car’s headlights to evade officers on Seppela Drive.

Police said Aningayou stopped the car on West D Street before attempting to flee on foot, and they said he continued fighting even as they arrested him and took him into custody.

Court documents claim Aningayou had marijuana upon his arrest, a drug offense elevated to a felony because his arrest was within 500 feet of the Nome Community Center, which houses the Boys and Girls Club.

In court Thursday, he also faced a felony assault charge for allegedly hitting the officer with his car, and a third felony charge for reckless driving.

He also faces misdemeanors for DUI, resisting arrest, driving with a revoked license, and reckless endangerment—the last charge a result of three passengers being in the car during the chase with police.

Nome District Attorney John Earthmen cited Aningayou’s record, including past drug and assault convictions, in calling for a steep bail, which was set at $10,000.

Further restrictions on his bail will be set at his court appearance next week.

Messages to the Nome Police Department were not returned Thursday, but the officer Aningayou allegedly hit with the vehicle was expected to return to work Thursday night.

]]>http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2015/02/20/nome-man-faces-felony-charges-for-fleeing-traffic-stop-hitting-officer-with-car/feed/0Churches, Nonprofits Keep Sales Tax Exemption, but City Council Moves Forward with Taxing Aircrafthttp://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/11/25/churches-nonprofits-keep-sales-tax-exemption-but-city-council-moves-forward-with-taxing-aircraft/
http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/11/25/churches-nonprofits-keep-sales-tax-exemption-but-city-council-moves-forward-with-taxing-aircraft/#commentsTue, 25 Nov 2014 22:56:17 +0000http://www.knom.org/wp/?p=13177Public outcry saw the council allow two contentious tax proposals die without consideration, but an idea to assess property tax on aircraft moved closer to a final vote.]]>http://www.knom.org/wp-audio/2014/11/2014-11-25-NCC-Sales-Tax-Dead.mp3

Nome’s nonprofits and churches will remain exempt from city sales tax—and retailers won’t have their unsold inventories taxed—but at Monday night’s City Council meeting, efforts to charge property tax on airplanes moved forward.

The rejection of the proposals are just the latest in the city’s months-long struggle to find more revenue after disappearing state and federal funding left a roughly $800,000 hole in the city’s budget.

A packed house gathered in City Council chambers to hear the introduction, or “first reading,” of three ordinances meant to bring in more revenue for the city. The council wasn’t able to debate the issues—that debate is only allowed on “second reading”—but that didn’t stop small businesses owners, nonprofits directors, and residents from telling the council their thoughts. And those thoughts were a chorus of rejection for all three proposals.

On the sales tax exemption issue, Danielle Slingsby with the Nome Community Center—which runs the town food bank, the Nome Children’s Home providing transitional youth housing, the XYZ Senior Center, and more—said ending the exemption would have a direct impact on services.

“All of our purchases are direct program purchases, so anything we purchase, we try to support local business as much as we can,” she said, addressing the council as well as the more than two dozen members of the public. “I think if you take [the sales tax exemption] away from nonprofits, you’re basically just taking away services from the people of Nome.”

Kawerak president Melanie Bahnke said services the regional nonprofit provides are usually performed by government agencies; agencies that she noted would remain exempt from sales tax with the proposal under consideration.

“Many of these programs exist because Kawerak assumed the functions of the federal government to deliver these services,” Bahnke said. “The federal government enjoys the benefit of the exemption. It would seem to penalize the tribal governments in this region for exerting self-governance by taxing these programs because they are not operated by the federal government.”

Though the sales tax exemption issue would have impacts on faith-based organizations like churches, no one from the roughly dozen churches in Nome spoke on the issue.

Levying tax on business inventories was characterized by many business owners as a “double tax” that would be collected both when items sit on the shelf and again when they are sold and subject to Nome’s 5 percent sales tax. Barb Nichols with the Nome Chamber of Commerce received a round of applause from members of the public after she spoke against taxing inventories.

“This additional cost can’t be shown on receipts, such as a retail sales tax,” Nichols argued. “The impact of these non-transparent taxes are hidden to most consumers, and an invisible issue to most voters.”

Nichols also spoke to the timing of the new tax, which would have gone in to effect Jan. 1, 2015. “Our business community has already ordered and received their goods to last through our long winters, to ensure the community has what it needs. Now, without any notice, this exemption could be removed this year.”

“This is not about business profit,” Nichols summarized. “Removing this exemption will dig even further into the ever-slimming wallets of all of our community members. These businesses should be celebrated, not double taxed.”

While dislike for the proposals was nearly unanimous, Rolland Trowbridge of Trinity Sails and Repair (and KNOM Chief Engineer) took the podium—without expressing support or opposition to any particular ordinance—to emphasize the need for organizations and individuals to be more willing to support a city that allows their nonprofits and businesses to exist.

“There’s a lot of business going on in Nome where sales tax isn’t being collected. A lot of people doing business on the side, repairs, the kind of stuff where they’re just taking cash money. And for those people doing that, you’re not helping yourself, you’re not helping anybody, because that is what it costs to run this town,” Trowbridge said.

“The reality is, I depend on this city to function correctly for my business to operate, and so do the nonprofits,” he added. “We all need to start saying, OK, where do we want the money to come from?”

Many speakers called on the city to get its own financial house in order before raising taxes, but City Manager Josie Bahnke said it wasn’t a ballooning city budget—but rather roughly $800,000 in shortfalls in state and federal funding—that has led to the current deficit. She said the new tax proposals were not considered on a whim.

“We did make cuts, we did get down to a bare-bones budget.This year our operating budget has gone down, we all continue to deal with healthcare costs rising … The discussion was around how we could make up for that approximately $800,000,” Bahnke said. “I think the idea of [sales tax] exemptions [as well as] meetings with the city attorney led us down that road.”

But fresh from attending last week’s Alaska Municipal League—a gathering of city administers from around the state—Bahnke said other Alaska cities, large and small, are facing similar budget shortfalls and identical scrambles for revenue, raising questions of just what jobs people expect their city to do.

“Some of the challenges, I think, are … the disconnect in what residents see, what they want, and what they’re willing to pay for. I think this is going to continue on here through the next several months … sometimes there’s disagreement on what the core functions of the city are, of what they should be.”

The room became quiet as the ordinance for the sales tax exemption went before the council, which required just one other council member to second the motion to move it forward. But the ordinance died on the table; not a single council member voted to even consider it for a first reading. The proposal to tax business inventories also failed to pass muster for first reading, failing in a vote of two in favor to three against.

That left just one proposal passing for a second reading, one that would assess property tax on aircraft. That brought Paul Kosto, the Nome station manager for Alaska Airlines, to the podium to tell the council that taxing airplanes could send businesses to other hubs like Bethel, Kotzebue, or Unalakleet.

“There’s some real-life ramifications for the airline industry if you were to start taxing aircraft. Nome would lose not only aircraft, they would lose services and they would lose jobs.” Kosto requested more information on how the city would assess any tax, “a formula, a tax plan, and quite frankly, what the aircraft owner is going to get in return for paying their tax dollars.”

Kosto added that few other Alaska cities collect property tax on planes, and when they do, it’s usually on city-owned airports, whereas Nome’s airport is state-owned. Council member Jerald Brown said there are enough city services at the airport to merit the tax.

“I’ve see the fire trucks responding to issues at the airport, I’ve seen police responding to issues at the airport. I know there’s water and sewer provided out there, probably for a fee, so services are being provided,” he said.

Brown called for a list of other cities that assess property tax on airplanes—and a list of what entity owns the airport in those communities—when the proposal comes up for a second reading (and formal public comment) at the council’s next meeting on Dec. 8.

The only other item before the council was handled quickly, approving a $7 million bid for the port’s Middle Dock project to Orion Marine Contractors.

]]>http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/11/25/churches-nonprofits-keep-sales-tax-exemption-but-city-council-moves-forward-with-taxing-aircraft/feed/1Reduce Obesity, Reduce Medical Costs, Nome Students Contribute to the Changehttp://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/08/07/reduce-obesity-reduce-medical-costs-nome-students-contribute-to-the-change/
http://www.knom.org/wp/blog/2014/08/07/reduce-obesity-reduce-medical-costs-nome-students-contribute-to-the-change/#commentsThu, 07 Aug 2014 23:54:44 +0000http://www.knom.org/wp/?p=11068Preventing obesity in Alaska’s children today will reduce medical costs in the future, according to a recent paper. Nome Public Schools is part of a state-wide initiative to accomplish just that.]]>http://knom.org/wp-audio/2014/08/2014-08-07-childhood-obesity.mp3

Preventing obesity in Alaska’s children today will reduce medical costs in the future, according to a paper released by the Institute of Social and Economic Research at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

“Tackling this issue right now,” said Mouhcine Guettabi, Assistant Professor of Economics at UAA and author of the study, “even that means investing a lot of dollars today, will actually end up being beneficial in the long run.”

The paper was commissioned by the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services to determine if obesity prevention programs—like the one in Nome Public Schools—will save the state money in the future. Karol Fink manages the Alaska Obesity Prevention and Control Program.

Fink summarized, “That’s the main conclusion of the publication is that, yes, you will definitely see a return on investment if you’re able to change childhood obesity prevalence rates.”

The study estimates a one-percent decrease in the obesity rate of six to 11 year olds will save $3.48 million in medical costs over 20 years. For 12 to 19 year olds, savings will top 11 million dollars. And that is using conservative estimates Guettabi said.

According to the paper, 15.2-percent of Alaskans between the ages of two and 19 are obese, resulting in excess medical costs of about seven million dollars annually. As the children age, the medical costs increase. In 20 years, the medical costs incurred by that same group of children is projected to reach $624 million in today’s dollars, again a conservative estimate.

If nothing is done about childhood obesity, Guettabi said it will become a trend repeated in future generations.

“That group of children,” Guettabi said, “obviously is going to age, and then we’re going to have a new group of children that’s going to be in the same situation. And so unless we do something that has long-lasting effects, we’re going to be repeating the cycle.”

To avoid that from happening, the state is investing in school-based obesity prevention programs, focusing on increasing physical activity, improving school nutrition and wellness education. The programs began last year. Eight are ongoing across the state with one in Nome.

Danielle Slingsby is the Executive Director of the Nome Community Center and applied for the grant.

“Our main focus last year,” Slingsby said, “was to, one, get in the schools, see what’s there, see what nutrition standards they have that are being met and in place. So last year was a huge year for just seeing what was there and figuring out what we need to change.”

This year, one of the goals is to collect height and weight measurements from every student in Nome Public Schools.

Commenting on the initiative, Slingsby said, “The height and weight measurements are a biggie, and I know it’s contentious among some parents.”

Slingsby said the measurements are necessary to track the progress of the program, and the instructors have learned methods for taking the numbers, like not letting the students see their measurements and sending the information home to parents and guardians with recommendations on how to improve the child’s wellness.

Those recommendations include efforts like reducing screen time—be it in front of a TV, a computer, a phone, or a video game—as well as increasing physical activity and improving diet.

Slingsby said diet can be the most expensive change to implement. She points to various local and state programs that could offer additional options.

“Now, with the cost of food here,” Slingsby said, “sometimes that [diet change] can be a challenge for some people. But with the benefits of the WIC program, food stamps, and the food bank, you can most likely supplement some of those staples and be able to buy healthier food as well.”

The obesity prevention program is in its second year and is scheduled to run four years.